Telugu Language

According to the Russian linguist M.S. Andronov, Proto-Dravidian provided increase to 21 Dravidian ‘languages’. They can be generally categorized into three groups: Northern group, central group, and Southern group of Dravidian languages. The Northern group includes three languages. The central group includes ten languages. Out of these ten, only Telugu became a civil language and rest of the nine languages stayed group languages. The southern group includes languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Tulu and others. Telugu divided from Proto-Dravidian between 1500-1000 BC. So, Telugu became a distinct language by enough time any literary activity started to appear in the Tamil area. Andhra from Northern India used to talk another language known as “Desi”.

Telugu related to the group of Dravidian languages. Telugu has similarities (close) with Tamil, Kannada, and Tulu. Primary vocabulary, verbs, sentence synthesis, and grammar dictate determine the structure of the language. The history of Telugu language provides an awesome example for the above declaration. For about 500-600 years during the Satavahana’s rule, Prakrut was used as the royal language in Andhra. Tadbhavas from Prakrut treated the Telugu language. But Telugu did not die. Telugu integrated the needed terms from Prakrut and removed rest. Guptas of Northern Indian and Pallavas of Southern Indian battled fights in 400-500 AD. These fights killed the royal language, Prakrut. Lastly, Prakrut rested in the Buddhism books in Tibet. Following, Sanskrit affected Telugu of Andhra for about 500 years. During 1000-1100 AD, Nannaya’s Telugu in Bharatam, Telugu in several identities, Telugu in poems reestablished its roots and taken over the royal language, Sanskrit.

Words like “Telugu”, “Tenugu”, and “Andhramu” were used in several circumstances in the “Tenugu Bharatam” published in 1050 AD. The name for a group is “Andhra” which is also used to contact the language that had progressed over 1000 years. “Andhrulu”, “Andhradesam”, “Teluguvaru”, “Telugudesam”, “Tenugudesam”, and “Tenugu Bhasha” are used as alternatives. Telugu language is India’s native Dravidian language. The government of India has given it the position of a well-known Traditional language as well. Moreover, it is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. It is spoken in several states of India but it is the mother tongue of Andhra Pradesh and here people use it. Apart from Andhra Pradesh, it is also spoken in nearby states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Orissa. It is the major language of Andhra Pradesh. In places like Chennai and Bengaluru, it is commonly used. According to 2001 census review, more than 74 million people talk this language. It is the third most used spoken language of India. In the Ethnologue record of the most used languages around the world, Telugu rankings in the top 14. The language Telugu is a much designed language and the word `telugu` comes from the word `trilinga`. It symbolizes three temples at Kaleshwaram, Drakasharamam and Srisailam. It has a near association with Kannada alphabet. Telugu language forms India’s largest linguistic unit.